Weight Loss for Life
Let's Learn about Nutrition

Recommended Daily Allowances

Many people are also misled by RDAs – Recommended Daily Allowances. People are confused by the word “recommended” – they feel that if they achieve the RDA of a nutrient, then that’s the amount recommended for good health. Not so at all.

Far from being sufficient to promote good health, the RDAs are set at a level just high enough to prevent deficiency diseases in the majority of people.

Take vitamin C, for example. The RDA is 60mg per day – just sufficient to ensure that you don’t get scurvy. It is not enough to promote good health.

Vitamin C is used in a huge number of processes in the body, from helping the immune system to being involved in the growth and repair of body tissue. Gorillas, closely related to humans, can eat 3,000mg a day. Most nutritionists recommend about 1,000mg a day for benefits to the immune system. Vitamin C is also a fragile nutrient, easily destroyed by storage and cooking.

It is easy to se how many people just aren’t getting enough, and end up with frequent colds, etc.

As it is poor eating habits that usually lead to weight problems, it’s essential that you arm yourself with some basic nutrition knowledge, so that you can learn to make healthy choices and not be misled by claims on packaging, etc.

So, here Comes the Science Bit…!

About Your Food

Carbohydrates

Currently enjoying a bad press as a result of the popularity of high protein, low carbohydrate diets. However the truth is that our bodies are designed to run on carbohydrates for energy.

The problem with the high protein diets is that all too often they fail to distinguish between different types of carbohydrates, so that the public comes to see all carbohydrates as bad. They’re not. It’s what the food industry does to carbohydrates that is bad. It’s the refined sort, stripped of nutrients and fibre, which is bad for the body, and which nutritionists don’t recommend. Whole, unrefined carbohydrate foods are a different story.

So what are carbohydrate foods?

Grains, vegetables, fruits, and sugary foods such as honey and table sugar. This is where the high protein propagandists confuse people. Not all carbohydrates are the same and one big difference is what the food industry does to carbohydrates – they refine them. Wholemeal flour is stripped of nutrients in order to make white flour. Fruit sugar is extracted and added to a multitude of foods to add extra sweetness.

Why is this bad news for the body?

Let’s look at why carbohydrates are important. Basically, they are the body’s preferred source of fuel, where you get your energy from. Packaged as nature intended, in the form of fruit, vegetables and whole grains, they supply this energy complete with fibre, which helps slow down the rate at which the body converts the carbohydrates into energy. This is especially so when protein is eaten at the same time, as protein is broken down more slowly. Eaten in this form (also called complex carbohydrates), carbohydrates are released slowly and steadily into the body, keeping energy levels constant and avoiding slumps.

Now look at what happens when we eat carbohydrates in their refined form. Take a breakfast of white toast, spread with jam – both refined carbohydrates. The body can convert such a breakfast very quickly into energy. Result – blood sugar rises rapidly, there’s a surge of energy but soon it’s all gone. By mid morning it’s odds on that the eater of this type of breakfast will be experiencing an energy slump, feeling irritable, and craving food, probably a sugar fix. So a chocolate bar is eaten (more refined carbohydrates) and the cycle begins again.

The more insidious side to all this is long term. To deal with the quick surges of sugar into the bloodstream, the body releases insulin, which helps transport sugar from the blood into cells. If a diet high in refined, sugary foods is eaten, the body is constantly producing insulin, and the cells have to respond. Over time, both the pancreas and the cells can become exhausted. The cells no longer respond to the stimulus of insulin so readily, and so sugar is left circulating in the blood. In order to deal with this sugar, the body starts to lay it down as fat, and weight problems are started.

Eating carbohydrates in their natural, unrefined forms, balanced with protein, can avoid these problems, keeping blood sugar levels constant, and avoiding the dips in energy that give rise to sugar cravings. They also supply vital nutrients.

Unrefined, whole carbohydrates should comprise about 60 – 70% of your diet.

Protein

Protein is commonly described as the building blocks of the body – it is used for growth and repair, as well as other functions such as hormone manufacture.

What foods are protein foods?

Many people have an image of protein as being a “good, rare steak”, and think that it comes solely from meat or fish; the truth is that most foods, excluding fruit, contain some protein, and a widely varied diet, sufficient to maintain a healthy weight, should give you all the protein that you need. Good sources of protein are eggs, meat, fish, pulses, soya, nuts and grains such as quinoa. The drawback with animal protein is that it contains no fibre, but does have a lot of undesirable saturated fat (more about fat and fibre later). Vegetable sources have the extra benefit of containing complex carbohydrates and fibre.

The benefit of protein for weight watchers is the fact that it takes quite a while for the body to break down, and so when eaten with complex carbohydrates will help to ensure a steady energy supply for the body. The fact that protein is broken down slowly also means that you feel fuller for longer, helping to stave off those mid – morning sugar cravings.

About 15% of your diet should be comprised of protein.

Fats

An emotive word for many dieters! Some people try to eliminate fat completely from their diet, with disastrous consequences. Yes, it’s true that too much fat is not good for your body, but fat is needed for many bodily functions, and the right kinds of fats help to keep skin and hair healthy. It is important to distinguish between different types of fat. Saturated fat is found mainly in meat, eggs and dairy products, and is not good news for the body: too much can lead to heart and circulation problems.

There are two types of unsaturated fat: monounsaturated, such as olive oil, and polyunsaturated, found in nuts, seeds and oily fish. Some polyunsaturated fats are called “essential fatty acids”, because they are essential for body functions such as the brain and nervous system, and cannot be manufactured by the body; they must be taken in through the diet. This is why nutritionists recommend nuts, seeds and fish so highly.

Fibre

Mentioned above in the section on complex carbohydrates, fibre is an integral part of unrefined grains, fruits and vegetables, and helps fill you up for longer, helping to avoid food cravings. Foods high in fibre will help maintain steady energy levels. A diet high in fresh fruits, vegetables and whole foods should supply you with all the fibre that you need.

Water

Many people don’t think of water as a nutrient, but is it vital for the body – the body itself is about two thirds water! A healthy diet needs water for many functions, one of which is to help fibre pass through the digestive tract. As you new healthy diet will include plenty of fibre, you will need to drink plenty of water. If you dislike plain water, try diluted fruit juice or herb/fruit teas. Regular tea and coffee is thought to cause the body to lose water, so are best avoided.

About How You Eat

Don’t skip meals!

This is where many dieters fall down, in the mistaken assumption that missing meals, particularly breakfast, will lead to weight loss.

The truth is that the body needs regular meals to provide vital energy, in a constant, steady supply. If you miss breakfast, your blood sugar levels will fall very low, giving rise to food cravings. These food cravings typically take the form of wanting chocolate or other refined, sugary foods. Eating a chocolate bar gives a quick burst of energy and stops the hunger pangs – temporarily. The body quickly converts the chocolate bar into sugar for energy, so blood sugar levels soar. Insulin is produced, causing the sugar to be absorbed into the cells…and hey presto, blood sugar levels crash down. Result – an energy slump, irritability, the shakes. Long term, as explained above, insulin supply can become disrupted, and the cells lose their ability to respond. Weight problems ensue – just what the meal – skipper was trying to avoid.

All that can be avoided by eating a balanced breakfast of unrefined carbohydrates together with protein (such as scrambled eggs on wholemeal toast), and regular, healthy food choices throughout the day. We’ll be looking at meal ideas in Module 3. For now, just remember the concept of treating your body kindly. Feed it regularly, feed it nutritiously, don’t starve it.

Some people who experience regular slumps and peaks in their energy levels do better with smaller, more frequent meals – say 6 small snack -size meals instead of 3 regular ones. It’s known as “grazing”. Try it, you may find it suits you.

What IS a portion of fruit or vegetables?

“Eat 5 portions or fruit or veg a day” is what we’re advised, but the truth is many people don’t know exactly what a portion is. I’ve heard people say that it’s an orange segment and say that therefore just 5 segments of orange a day is enough. Wrong on two counts. It has to be different fruits and vegetables, and one segment of orange isn’t enough.

So what is a portion? Let’s look at various fruits and vegetables, and see how big a portion is:

• Vegetables
  3 tablespoons of peas/sweetcorn
  8-10 asparagus spears
  3-4 cauliflower or broccoli florets
  6-8 Brussels sprouts.
• Pulses (yes, pulses count)
  4 tablespoons of baked beans, chick peas or lentils.
• Salad
  1 average sized mixed bowl.
• Dried fruit
  4 dried apricots or prunes.
• Berry fruit
  10 strawberries.
• Medium sized fruit
  2 kiwi fruits.
• Larger fruit
  1 banana, apple or orange.
• Very large fruit
  1 wedge of melon or slice of pineapple.

Picture the above in your mind, and you’ll get an idea of how big portions are. By the way, potatoes don’t count – even though they are indeed vegetables, their high starch content means that they are classed for this purpose with other starchy foods, such as bread or pasta.

Bear in mind that 5 portions a day should be the minimum that you should aim for; aim to base your new eating plan around as many portions a day as you can manage, packing in lots of health giving nutrients with all those different fruits and vegetables. Aim to “eat a rainbow” – as many different coloured ones as you can, to get as many nutrients as possible.

What about calories?

Some people may be surprised that I haven’t mentioned anything about calories, as losing weight and calorie counting are inextricably linked in their minds.

Remember what I said in Module 1 about changing the way that you think about food. Weighing and measuring food and counting its calories isn’t much fun and leads to you thinking about food only in terms of what it will do for your waistline. Food is one of the great pleasures in life and is there to be enjoyed. Once you start eating healthy, nutritious foods, enjoying the delicious tastes that come from eating food in its natural state, and start rejecting the unhealthy choices of before, once you start eating regular, balanced meals and lots of fruit and vegetables, you won’t need to worry about calories.

Think health, not weight loss, and you’ll be naturally drawn towards the choices that keep you slim anyway.

A word about vitamin/mineral supplements

“Why should I need those if I eat a balanced, healthy diet?” you may ask.

Remember what I said above about the myth of the well balanced diet. Chances are that you’d benefit from a high quality vitamin and mineral supplement. Don’t be tempted by cheap ones. They tend to be packed with chemicals as fillers, glazers and bulking agents, and the vitamins and minerals in them are in forms that the body can’t use easily – such as calcium carbonate, which is calcium in the form of blackboard chalk. Difficult to imagine your body absorbing that, isn’t it? High quality supplement companies would include calcium in a form such as calcium citrate, which is far better absorbed by the body.

Good quality supplements, readily available from health food stores, include Solgar, Quest and Higher Nature.

Actions of the Week

1. Clear those Cupboards!

Look through your cupboards, fridge and freezer. Make notes of what food in there is unhealthy. Study the backs of packets and look at all the additives, extra salt, sugar and fat, and think of what all that must do to your body. See if you can think of ways to replace the junk with healthier alternatives. We’ll be looking at this in greater detail in Module 3.

2. Think about your current diet downfalls

Are you regularly skipping breakfast? Do you depend on chocolate fixes? Think about the various ways in which your desire to eat a healthy diet is at odds with what you actually do – your diet downfalls! Write them down, ready for Module 3.

3. Visit your local health food store

Buy a good quality vitamin and mineral supplement. Start taking it right away and remember to take it each day!

4. Brush up Your Cooking Skills!

Cooking food is for many a dying art – people increasingly rely on ready-made meals, which tends not to be the healthiest way to eat. If your cooking techniques need brushing up, invest in a good book that will teach you the basics. Lot’s of practice is the key if you’re not confident in the kitchen – you’ll soon get the hang of it.